Rose's Rainbow
by fonzi
Summary: Rose feels inspired by the last human art gallery, so she creates an unusual piece of art that involves the Doctor. WARNING- some series four references


Rose's Rainbow

**Rose's Rainbow**

Rose had never thought herself much of an artist. But tonight she was inspired.

The Doctor had taken her to see the last human art gallery, which was filled with beautiful paintings of light and color. Many of the paintings were splashed with different colors that intermingled together to make their own distinct dance. Some of the artists were devoted entirely to color feeling, a concept where the colors in the picture reflected the feelings of the artist. Rose had found it fascinating.

But apparently, art galleries had the power to make even the Doctor tired. Rose had slept for at least 12 hours the day before, and she had too much energy to go to sleep. The Doctor had fallen asleep even before Rose had brought him his usual cup of tea. She had gone back to her room, and, not knowing what to do, got(ten?) out the sketch pad she had brought. She tried to sketch her room, but she didn't have strong enough emotions there to try to relate them to her pictures.

She had wandered around the TARDIS for some time, searching for a room that had some meaning, but she just couldn't find any. (Besides ze pool room. lol) She had ended up in the console room with no ideas. She decided to close her eyes and drift to a place she knew well. After a while, she opened her eyes and saw the open door of the Doctor's room. Tiptoeing in, she found a chair and sat down as quietly as she could. But the chair still squeaked a little. Rose flinched, hoping that the noise wouldn't wake the Doctor, who was usually a very light sleeper. But he didn't budge. Art galleries were just too much for him. They made him so tired, he was even snoring softly.

Rose flipped to a new page in her sketchbook and started to draw the room around the Doctor, slowly making the shapes surrounding him before she tried to draw his figure, half hidden under a blanket. He was laying on his side, facing her, with his arm draped over the edge of the bed. His chest was bare, and she saw a bit of his pajama shorts peeking out from under the deep blue and green quilt that covered the rest of his body. The most amazing thing about this picture was his face. It was smoothed free of all worry or stress, which left him with a vulnerable, little boy smile tugging at the edges of his mouth,

He was obviously dreaming of something pleasant, which gave Rose the inkling to draw a light blue stream of light emanating from the lamp on his bedside table. When she had finished, she looked around, adding light yellow and orange spots where she had fond memories. After that, she sat and waited for something to happen, because she was out of ideas.

She had waited a good 20 minutes, sitting and watching the Doctor, when she discovered that he had another secret he was keeping from her. He was talking in his sleep!

For a while Rose listened intently, only hearing snatches. But after a while, she made out what sounded like a sentence.

"Rose… something important to tell you…"

Frustration clouded her mind. What was it that he wanted to tell her? What was so important?

Pulling herself back to her picture, she painted another beam of light emanating from the lamp, only a light reddish color this time, because of her confusion. When she was done, she heard some more mumbling that she couldn't make out, coupled with words that gave her an idea of what he was talking about.

"Rose… TARDIS… run… hide… we'll be safe… yes… I promise…"

She added orange beams coming from the lamp. He wasn't helping her understand.

"No… count the shadows… this is their forest… get out… TARDIS… now!"

She still didn't know what he was talking about. But she was thinking of the forest they had visited soon after he had regenerated. It was so green…

Green beams emanated from the lamp.

Then, she jumped. The Doctor had said her name so clearly that she thought he'd woken. But he hadn't. He repeated her name, and then…

"Rose… something very important to tell you… please listen… I think… no, I know… that I am in love with you…"

Rose's heart swelled. She was sure that the Doctor would wake up, because her beautiful, pure joy must have been singing. Her ribs must have been cracking to accommodate her heart, which was surely going to burst from her chest. She smiled, and she was sure that he would wake up, because the light from her face must have been blinding. But he didn't.

Boy, could that man sleep.

She added yellow beams coming from the lamp. Some of the beams split off and curled around his face, framing it as if he were an angel. Only then did Rose realize that all of her colors had made a rainbow that seemed to light up the picture. The rainbow did not seem to start from the lamp as she had intended, but emanated from the light that surrounded the Doctor's face. She realized that even though the colors had not turned out the way she had imagined them to, they were the most accurate depiction of the Doctor that she could produce. Inexplicable, but beautiful nonetheless.

Very like a rainbow.

But there was one thing missing…

She studied her picture, trying to figure out what she had missed. Finally, she took her brown pencil and added one off-center curl to the top of his head. It made all the difference.

Now her rainbow was complete. He shone, just like he was supposed to.

She sat there, marveling at the amazing work of art she was able to copy onto paper, watching just to watch. Satisfied with this moment forever. But then…

…his mouth fell open into the perfect, comical 'O'.

And she couldn't help but take advantage of that moment. She pulled out her compact digital camera, and snapped a picture.

But she had forgotten to turn down the flash. And the he really did wake up.

"Oi!"

Rose giggled.

"What did you do that for!? I was having a perfectly nice dream!"

_Oh, I know_, she thought.

"And, wait! What are you doing in my room!?"

Oh no. She had forgotten about the silent rule. Never go into the Doctor's room while he was sleeping. Oops.

"Umm, I was, well, ... drawing."

"Drawing what?"

"This." She handed him the picture.

"Woah. You did this?"

"Yeah. All it took was a little inspiration, like we saw in the art gallery."

"Wow. Is this me? It can't be me! I look like… like I'm holy or something!"

"You can't see yourself clearly then."

The Doctor beamed, and motioned for a hug.

They sat there for a while, looking at her picture, and occasionally into each other's eyes.

_Geez. He's never going to commit to anything. You need to stop feeling like this every time he looks at you_, Rose thought. She blinked and brought herself back to earth. Or, the TARDIS, if not earth.

But then he turned to look at her, with eyes so gentle, that, despite her resolution, flipped her stomach. And then her reserve crumbled completely when he leaned in to kiss her.

When he finally pulled away, Rose thought, _Oh well, I guess I can live with this too, _and smiled so brightly, that the Doctor had no choice but to just beam along with her,

She sighed, knowing that this was her one and only happy place.

In the arms of her rainbow.


End file.
